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Dr. Clayton Russel
Dr. Clayton Dewey Russel is a professor of Anthropology, Tribal Theology, and Tribal Linguistics and Miskatonic University. His focus is on New World cultures, particularly Stone Age and prehistoric cultures. Personality and Appearance Clayton is loosely a cross between Indiana Jones and a friendly bartender in personality. He has Indy's same divide between his nerdy, responsible public professor persona and his more adventurous and wryly cynical fieldwork persona; this expedition is trying the balance between the two due to the mix of fieldwork and responsibilities. Both aspects of his personality are tempered with being level headed and a good listener in general. Clayton is about 5'10" with sandy brown/blond hair that's kept cropped short, a lean face with seemingly perpetual stubble and sunken cheeks, and grey eyes. He likes to wear a belt decorated with glass beads that he got from the Hiwi. Field work has always been his passion, and he's always thought of having to teach as more the price for getting to do what he loves than something to enjoy on its own. (Plus, dealing with students without the ability to relax with a drink later is just unfair.) Despite never having dealt with jungle conditions or Amazon natives, he practically jumped at the opportunity because it got him back in the field a year earlier than he would have been able to get without it. Background Clayton is the son of a Methodist minister and of the daughter of an immigrant Dutch historian, born in 1894 and raised in Burlington, Vermont. Clayton's mother was a strong advocate of women's suffrage and equality and a fiery Progressive who has always been supportive of his work. Clayton's father was a bit more of a distant figure and had hoped that Clayton would end up going to seminary like he did. He was disappointed in Clayton's fascination with the ways of pagan peoples and his drive to study and record their ways rather than to convert them to Christianity. As a young boy and teen, he joined one of the early proto-Boy Scout organizations, the Woodcraft Indians, and became fascinated with New England's native cultures and ancient religious sites and with camping and the wilderness. All this fascination started with one night of camping on an isolated and abandoned stone tableau deep in the woods of Vermont. He dreamed that night of the rites and rituals committed there and has been driven to learn more and more about the ways of peoples who do not believe in what he does. As he grew up and attended Miskatonic University, this fascination (and research opportunities) led him to focus more on South and Central American cultures. His grad school work and later teaching career would focus on work overseas doing in the field with the Guahibo and Hiwi cultures in Columbia and, more recently, the Mapuche and Sapa Inca in Chile. His academic focus is one the religious beliefs and rites of native peoples. His specialization is in cultural anthropology and linguistics, but he also does a smattering of archaeology to try to get the full story of a people. Thanks to his father's early efforts and his own studies, Clayton is an accomplished linguist with the ability to fluently speak and read Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Greek, Aramaic, and he's pretty fluent in Quecha (Incan) and the languages of several other Central and South American native tribes. Dr. Russel managed to avoid service in the Great War by a mixture of being a student and out of the country at the time. He has mixed feelings about more thanks to a thirst for adventure than for patriotism, but having one of this brothers maimed in trench warfare has made him more glad of missing it than regretful. Stats Obsession: Pre-historical cultures (Anthropology / Theology (GK)) Rage Stim: The destruction of irreplaceable (pre-)historical artifacts. Fear Stim: Being attacked by something that wants to eat him. (Violence) Noble Stim: The pursuit of knowledge (emphasis on pre-history & anthropology). Body: 52 (Lean) General Athletics 41%, Struggle 20%, Woodsman 44% Speed 51 (Hunter) Dodge 25%, Piloting (Driving) 20%, Initiative 25%, Firearms 40% Mind 82 (Professor) Anthropology / Theology (Gen.Ed.) 68%, Linguistics 50%, Tracking (Notice) 44%, Conceal 15% Soul 60 (Trustworthy) Charm 31%, Lie 15%, Good Listener 60% Advancement Increases: (0/14 EXP left) Matched-Die Increases: +2 Notice, +1 Charm From classes on the trip (3 rolls): +9 Jungle Survival (Woodsman); +12 Archaeology (Gen.Ed.) Category:PCs